This invention generally relates to loose leaf binders and, more particularly, to apparatus and methods for facilitating quick revisions of sets of loose leaf elements bound by such binders.
Loose leaf binders of various designs have long been known as shown by U.S. Pat. Nos. 764,502 issued Jul. 5, 1904 to Robson et al.; 805,575 issued Nov. 28, 1905 to Morden; 2,236,321 issued Mar. 25, 1941 to Ostrander; 2,322,180 issued Jun. 15, 1943 to Vernon and 3,785,740 issued Jan. 15, 1974 to Strong.
The most common form of such binders generally comprise an elongate backing, or rib, intermediate a pair of pivotally connected covers which carries therebetween a loose leaf binder assembly comprising a plurality, such as two or three, aligned binder rings. Each of these binder rings are generally defined by a pair of arcuate rings, or loop, elements which are mounted for pivotal movement between an open position and a closed position. In the open position there is a gap between the free ends of the mating pair of right and left ring members to enable insertion of the ring members through mating, aligned mounting holes adjacent the edges of the loose leaf elements, such as paper documents or the like. After the loose leaf elements are mounted to either the right or the left side ring members by sliding the loose leaf mounting holes over the ends of the ring, the mating pairs of right and left loop members are moved to the closed position in which the ends of the mating pairs of ring members abut to form a continuous loop which binds, i.e. blocks removal of the loose leaf elements from off the free ends of the ring members. Typically, the mating pair of ring members are spring biased both toward the open position when open and toward the closed position when closed. An example of this general type of loose leaf ring binder construction is shown in the aforementioned patent 2,236,321 of Ostrander.
Other types of construction are also known. For example in the aforementioned patent 805,575 of Morden, the gap of a split book ring is selectively opened and closed by means of a locking sleeve slideably mounted to the split ring for movement between a closed position in which the sleeve closes, or bridges, the gap to prevent removal of loose leaf elements, to an open position in which the gap is not closed and the opposite ends of the ring are exposed for addition and removal of the loose leaf elements. Similarly, in the aforementioned Pat. Nos. 764,502 of Robson and 2,322,280 of Vernon , a split ring is rotatably mounted to a member parallel to the rib for movement between a position in which the gap in the ring is blocked by the parallel member to a position in which it is open for removal of selected loose leaf documents. Another type of construction is illustrated in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,093,041 of Emery and 3,785,740 of Strong in which part of an upper position of a binding ring is pivotally mounted for movement away form the interior of the loop formed by the ring to open and close a gap.
The advantage of loose leaf binders, relative to other types of fixed or nonloose leaf binders, such as glued book binders, spiral binders or the like, is that they facilitate revision of the set of loose leaf documents or elements being bound thereby. This revision, either removal or substitution of loose leaf documents already bound or addition of new loose leaf documents, can be done selectively at any relative location in the set of loose leaf elements. This is achieved by turning the loose leaf elements from one side to the other until the desired location within the set of loose leaf elements is reached at which the document to be removed, for instance, is positioned at a location closest to, or adjacent to, the point of juncture of the relatively movable ring members or, in the case of a split ring construction, closest to the gap. In the case of the most common construction employing a pair of movable ring, or loop, members, the loose leaf elements are simply turned from one side, in binding relationship with one of the loop elements, to the other side in binding relationship with the other loop member. Then the ring members are moved to an open position to create the gap needed for removal or insertion of the loose leaf elements at the top of the stack on either side of the rib, i.e., those attached to the left loop member and those attached to the right loop member.
While this is a considerable advantage over nonloose leaf binders, it sill demands a substantial number of repetitive steps in order to make substantial revisions which are often required. Such loose leaf binders are commonly employed for binding sets of legal opinion reporting documents, governmental and internal company regulations and aviation documents, such as so called "Jeppsen Charts", and the like, maintained by various libraries, other organizations and individuals, such as aviation pilots.
These sets of documents must be revised, or updated, on a periodic basis--annually, quarterly, monthly, and, in some cases, such as aviation "Jeppsen Charts", the sets of documents must be updated weekly. These revisions are accomplished by periodically providing the subscribers sub-sets of substitute pages which are to be randomly distributed throughout the original set of documents. Such sub-sets of substitute documents can contain hundreds of pages or groups of consecutive pages which must be substituted one page or one group at a time.
Unfortunately, the known loose leaf binders provide only one means for accomplishing these substitutions, and this means is tedious, labor intensive, noisy and creates undue wear and tear on the ring binding assembly. In the case of conventional spring biased ring binders, the covers are opened and lain on a horizontal surface. Then the pages of the bound document are turned from one side at which a stack is bound by one of the ring members to the other side at which a stack is bound to the other ring member, until the desired page to be removed, substituted or supplemented is located on top of either the left hand or right hand stack of documents. The ring binder is then snapped open to create a gap, and the removal, substitution or supplementation is performed.
After this first substitution, since there is no means to guide documents from one side to the other side across the gap when the binder is open, the ring binder must be snapped shut, so the pages can be turned from one side, or one binder element, to the other side, or other binder element, until the next page location selected for revision is reached. The ring binder is then snapped open, and the revision process as described above is repeated. For each subsequent revision location, this process of closing the binder, turning the pages to the revision location and opening the binder to enable the removal or addition of the loose leaf elements, must be repeated. If there are hundreds of separate revisions, then the binder must be snapped open and snapped closed hundreds of times.